Surge
by Catheryne
Summary: Lucas. Chloe. Lex. In the heart of a woman, is there really room for only one man? COMPLETE
1. Lucas

Surge  
  
I. Lucas  
  
He had a destiny.  
  
This was the last thing that his foster father told him before the old man died. Robert was a good man-a loving husband and encouraging father. Sure, Robert had left his wife and son with a debt that was the size of Kansas, but that was because of his illness, his addiction. The chips were at fault. The reason why he was killed outside a suburban supermarket though, was another matter entirely.  
  
At first, Lucas believed that his destiny was to find the men his father owed money to. There were no other people on earth who had the resources and the motive to blow the man's brains out.  
  
After the funeral, an affair that half a dozen people bothered to attend, Lucas saw his foster mother slowly decline. She languished inside the small living room, staring out the window waiting for her husband to come home.  
  
And Lucas believed his destiny was to throw his mother a lifeline, help her back to the land of the living. He believed he was going to succeed too. Lucas worked part time after hours at the community high school. His back started to kill him at fourteen but he met the deadlines on the bills. He missed one utility payment or two, but for five months, Lucas truly believed they were staying afloat.  
  
Until one July day when he opened the door carrying a brown take out bag, and saw his foster mother in her usual rocking chair by the window, staring out unseeing, a small bottle of pills lying on the floor close to her feet.  
  
Then Lucas knew that destiny was something you had to wait for.  
  
He must have been destined to work for the same men who popped Robert's head. Out of a home and a family, Lucas ended up learning about the world that Edge City was ashamed of. He lied and cheated to silence his hunger. He worked until he could not stand the filth on his body. This determination brought her inch by inch closer to the people who brought him that low.  
  
One day, he had thought. One day he would be close enough to grab a gun from someone's belt and spit a bullet into their heads.  
  
Funny this about destiny, he learned. The same night when he was about to execute his plan, someone accused him of cheating. He rolled to find one hand extended to him. His brother became his salvation.  
  
He swore to himself that destiny was paying Lex back.  
  
Lucas knew he would work for Lex until the day he died. When Lex decided to run for office, Lucas became the shadow that Lex needed more than ever. For the younger man, it was an honor to be so trusted. He would lay his life for his brother without question.  
  
He knew every move, tasted everything before Lex did, stepped into a room before Lex ever could. Lucas checked every possible source of danger before Lex even know it existed.  
  
Lucas gave every waking second to Lex. One danger he never succeeded in removing was the small town girl. The moment Lucas saw Lex stop and turn, one night after a meeting in a highly favored restaurant, he was sure that his blonde would pose problems. Ever since that night, Chloe Sullivan had been his brother's constant companion.  
  
Lucas had never seen Lex as relaxed and free as he was with the woman. Immediately, Lucas conducted his own investigation that made him even more suspicious of Chloe Sullivan. She was a reporter fighting her way to the top, and it just so happened that he was in the same restaurant as Lex Luthor would be.  
  
She knew Lex would want to reminisce about Smallville. Lex had always recalled the place fondly.  
  
Lucas knew the exact moment when Lex first slept with the girl. It was two months after they met again. He was surprised the girl waited that long.  
  
One night, during a fundraiser that Lex did not need except to make his candidacy known, Lex said that woman's name from the podium. Lex had extended his hand to her. Chloe pretended hesitation and waited for Lex to ask her again to step up there with him. That was when Lex introduced her to everyone as his fiancé.  
  
As the audience burst into a round of applause, Lucas decided it was his destiny to watch over her too. 


	2. Lex and Chloe

II. Lex and Chloe  
  
He was everything that Lucas admired. Lex Luthor, candidate for office in the United States senate, possessed all that Lucas could only dream of.  
  
Lucas watched as heads turned at Lex's approach. His hand hovered over the gun invisible under his belt. Lucas was always ready to protect his brother. Not one flicker of an eyelash when Lex appeared in public.  
  
Chloe was conspicuously missing from the party. It had been natural for Lucas to search for her after ensuring that Lex was safe. Once, his brother told him that Chloe Sullivan was his life. The absence prickled his sense of control. He did not understand why Lex and Chloe are making this harder for him. He would not be able to rest if he could not watch them both.  
  
Lucas straightened when he saw Lex heading for his direction. Usually, Lex would go about his business alone and Lucas would be the shadow. It was almost as if Lex did not want to acknowledge his presence in front of an audience. Yet Lucas knew just how much Lex valued him. He had accepted long ago that there were roles for them to play.  
  
"What is it, Lex?" Lucas inquired immediately when the millionaire was within hearing distance. There was an urgent reason for Lex to head to him.  
  
"I need a favor," came Lex's smooth voice. Lex steeped closer and took his brother's elbow. Lucas listened intently. He did not need to respond. Lex knew that he never had to ask. "I need you to check on Chloe."  
  
Lucas nodded. He wanted to ask, but he did not need to. He'd do it anyway.  
  
Lex offered his explanation. "I'm worried about her. I know you're familiar with the threats that come with who I am. I tried to get her to leave with me."  
  
"So she's at home?" Lucas inquired, only to make his retrieval quicker.  
  
Lex nodded. "We had a fight. It was-" He ran a hand over his face. "It was my fault. I flew off the handle. I just need you to make sure that she's safe, Lucas. I won't be able to apologize until midnight if I wait until this affair is over."  
  
"You want me to bring her here?"  
  
Lex shook his head. "I doubt she'd come, although I'd love it. I can tell her I'm sorry a lot earlier. But if she doesn't want to, then just keep her safe. I'll be back as soon as I can."  
  
Lucas frowned. "Would you like me to send someone so I can stay here for you?"  
  
"I need my best man out there, Lucas. I can't think of anyone other than my brother."  
  
"Lex, I'm your guard. Chloe has hers."  
  
Lex took a deep breath and for the first time since he found Lucas, Lex closed his hand around his brother's. "Lucas, I just walked out of our house after telling her that I'm not ready for a kid."  
  
Lucas' immediate thought was that Lex must have done something so brilliant as a child to deserve everything he was getting now. The next was that his brother may be a genius but he did not know what to do with heaven when he got it. Instead Lucas said, "Chloe knows that. I was around when you two agreed to wait. Was she pressing the issue?"  
  
"She gave me photo paper print out that she got from her doctor." Lucas could see Lex's lashes trembling when his brother closed his eyes. "I told her that I had to think about it. And then I left."  
  
Lucas remembered being unwanted. It had not been a great feeling for a six- year-old to find out your real parents did not love you enough to keep you. "I'll see you later." He turned around and called his primary security officer and left instructions for Lex's safety.  
  
He rushed to his black Honda, the perfect car for low profile quality performance. Lucas could not presume to understand what went on in his brother's head most of the time. Lex adored Chloe. Lex had ambitions. Until this moment, Lucas was pretty certain that he knew Lex's priorities.  
  
When he arrived at the house, Lucas turned off the engine and stepped out, scanning the surroundings for any suspicious people or cars. He was as aware as, if not even more so than, Lex of the threats to their lives. He would have preferred not leaving Lex, but Chloe was as much a target as his brother was. While Lex was now surrounded by media and by his security detail, Chloe was left in the private sanctuary of the house she shared with Lex, a place so big you can scream without being heard from the other side.  
  
Stealthily Lucas let himself into the house and up the long flight of stairs that led to the floor where the bedrooms were. The house was silent and still, and he could not take any chances of alerting anyone lurking around to his presence. He took out his wallet and slid the key out of the photo wad. He pushed the door open slightly and peered inside.  
  
She was an image he would not soon forget.  
  
Lying on the center of the bed, a jewel on top of cool silk sheets, Chloe closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The oxygen was meant to steady her racing heart, calm her tumultuous emotions. She successfully managed to make whatever was inside her even stronger.  
  
Intentionally leaving herself blind, she gripped the hard metal binding on her middle finger and slowly, excruciatingly pulled it off. One hard stone bit into her flesh, but Chloe merely sniffled and held the ring more tightly. Without minding the material value of the symbol, she threw it away from her, not the least bit curious about where it would land.  
  
Lucas bent to pick up the heavy ring. He twirled it around on his fingers. The diamond winked at him. "Geniuses are often the stupidest people in the world."  
  
Chloe opened her eyes and sat up on the bed. Her eyes swam in tears. "Did he send you to make things clear to me? Did you come here to tell me how stupid I was to get pregnant when he made it clear that it's not time?"  
  
Lucas shook his head.  
  
Chloe appeared to calm down. "Did he tell you to apologize for him?"  
  
Lucas denied it again. He walked to the side of the bed and sat down. "He sent me to keep you safe," he answered, "so he can apologize to you himself."  
  
She released a half-smile, half-cry, as she threw her arms around him. "I knew he'd understand."  
  
Lucas bit back a teasing comment that it had not been too apparent. "You've got to forgive him. He's not used to dealing with real people, with real feelings. In that respect we're like our father."  
  
Chloe smiled at Lucas. "He should take lessons from you." She craned her neck to look for her ring.  
  
"Looking for this?" Lucas took Chloe's hand and slid Lex's ring on her finger. "Now don't lose that again. And get your clothes," he told her, remembering that Lex would feel better if he were able to apologize sooner. "You're coming to the party with me."  
  
"When you're my baby's godfather, you're the one who's going to get bossed around."  
  
Lucas shook his head. "I'll never be any kid's doting godfather, Chloe. Don't even think about it." 


	3. Chloe

III. Chloe  
  
The car was moving slowly. It was odd to be in a slow-moving vehicle. She usually sped with Lex. He was the one who introduced her to the sheer exhilaration of tearing through a cornfield. She learned how to let the roof down and allow the wind to whip through her hair the first day she met Lex again back in Smallville. She had not done that in a long time. Since Lex decided to run for the Kansas senatorial seat, she had been stuck in Metropolis traffic, uneasy at the backseat of a limousine, hampered by traffic lights that dictated how she should ride.  
  
Sometimes she just wished she and Lex could steal away for a weekend back in the leafy little hamlet that surprisingly took up the space of home in her heart. But on a week when she could hardly see her fiancé, let alone exchange words with him, how was she ever going to be able to convince him to escape with her to Smallville?  
  
It was no wonder that Lucas became her closest friend, when the first time they met, she shivered with the coldness of his gaze. She lived in a city of millions of people and the ones she could talk to were nowhere in sight. She was forever surrounded by men who would scrutinize any person who came within spitting distance, and forever scan the crowds and buildings for any sign of hostility.  
  
Even Lana Lang was a suspect in their eyes.  
  
In that regard Chloe was amused. It was refreshing to see a group of men who were not swept off their feet by Lana's beauty.  
  
She grinned and glanced at the man driving carefully beside her. He was the opposite of his brother in so many ways. He had grown up in the opposite side of the tracks, attended none of the schools that Lex did, and possessed none of the finesse with which Lex carried himself. At the same time, Lucas was so like Lex that she feared that one day, she would glance at him and see her fiancé. Lucas had grown up without the education, but he was every bit as intelligent. Lex had lived with Lionel, who may be as worse as the lot that Lucas grew up with. Without the breeding of expensive boarding schools that taught grace in movement through dancing and fencing lessons, Lucas nonetheless exuded the same smoothness and verve that his brother had.  
  
Chloe scanned Lucas' profile against the headlights of other cars. They looked so different, yet so alike. He was still talking, and she slowly tuned back to listen to Lucas' argument.  
  
"-and can you honestly tell me that you know any other man his age who is running a company as large, and maintains such a good reputation among his peers?"  
  
Chloe could think of a couple, but she did not let it slip. Lucas needed to drone on about Lex's attributes, so she let him.  
  
"And he honestly has the best intentions for the state, Chloe. He's running because of a lot of amazing ideals. Some of those he got from you," he told her.  
  
She smiled. Lex told her the same thing every night. At least he used to.  
  
He probably noticed that she had been silent for a while. Lucas took his eyes away from the road and glanced at her.  
  
Their eyes met. His eyes made her smile even more. He was so passionate about his fight for his brother that she doubted that Lucas thought about much else since Lex saved him that night.  
  
"Were you listening to a word a said?"  
  
"I know all of those, Lucas. Do you think I would have stayed with Lex this long if I didn't appreciate everything you've told me about him?"  
  
The sides of his mouth turned up. "Just making sure." He forced himself to look back at the traffic. Chloe felt as one of his hands covered hers and squeezed. "I may not like your threat about being godfather, but I can't wait to see Lex's kid," he murmured in the darkness of the Honda. "I hope it looks like Julian, since I never met him."  
  
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Right. The baby should look like a Luthor. After all, Lex would do all the work in this pregnancy."  
  
"Are you offended, Chloe?" he asked in a teasing voice. Lucas turned at the next street and approached the house of the former senator, where the party for Lex was being held. "Don't be. You'd regret it if it's a boy and it's as pretty as you are. And Luthors tend to have male kids."  
  
Chloe chuckled at her fiancé's brother. The moment he stopped, she shook off his hand and opened the passenger door simply because she did not believe that men should open doors for women unless the doors were heavy as vault doors were. She was safe now anyway. She had seen Lucas' own men posted around the perimeter.  
  
Inside the car, Lucas followed Chloe's progress with his eyes. He turned off the ignition and looked down at his palm. The indentation marks left by the diamond on her ring seemed like small, raw bite marks on his skin. 


	4. Chloe and Lucas

IV. Chloe and Lucas  
  
Two nights after their very first meeting  
  
She stirred languidly in her position curled up in the couch. Chloe yawned loudly, stretched, and reluctantly pulled herself to a sitting position. She blinked at the clock hanging on the wall. Her vision was still blurry, so she rubbed the sleep and traces of two hours worth of crying.  
  
Chloe really did not want to get up-not when she knew she wasn't going out with Lex, or even going to see him for a while. She shook her head. She'd already cried about that particular problem and promised herself she won't dwell on it for at least five more hours.  
  
The light on the answering machine was beeping, and she hurried to listen to her messages.  
  
"Hey sweetheart. I should have guessed you'd be too sleepy to take my call. Anyway, my plane is about take off so I have to shut off my phone for a while. Didn't want you to worry. So if you wake up and aren't able to contact me, just hold on. I'll call you back."  
  
"How long were you up crying, Chloe? Anyway, make sure you get plenty of rest. I'm somewhere over the Atlantic."  
  
"We're landing soon, and you're sleeping a lot tonight. I'll be in Vienna in a few minutes. I'll call you then."  
  
"Chloe, I'm going in for a meeting. I'll call you after. If my voice pierces through that dream haze you have there, think of the two of us dancing under the moonlight."  
  
Chloe's lips curved into a smile. So that was where the image came from. Suddenly, she felt a pang stronger than the others she'd felt. She missed him so much.  
  
She did not want to choke in her own depression. Chloe got up and walked to the kitchen for some milk. She opened the refrigerator and reached for the carton. That was when her gaze fell on her finger, to her engagement ring. She drew the ring close to her heart and sighed. Chloe poured herself half a glass of milk and made her way back to the living room, simply because she was not willing to sleep in her bed without the other half of it occupied.  
  
Perhaps she had been around Lex too long. All she knew was the minute she walked past the kitchen doors and into the dark living room, it felt just a degree warmer than it had when she left. Lex had had threats to his life for some time, and had cautioned her to be careful. Even with the airtight security of her house, she could still never be too sure if she was safe or not.  
  
Chloe stepped lightly towards the light switch. The advantage of almost pitch darkness was that if you could not see the intruder, the intruder could not see you. Chloe placed the milk glass down on a small table and opened the drawer silently, drawing out the small gun that Lex left there for this particular occasion. In her head she recited a litany of prayers. And then quick as a whip she flipped the light switch on and trained her gun at the head of the man sitting on her couch.  
  
"Hey, it's me!"  
  
Chloe tried to suck in her breath, but failed. She opened her mouth widely, desperately trying to breathe. About three minutes later, Lucas was standing in front of her and prying her gun out of her hands. Lucas firmly pushed her arms down and slapped her cheeks softly.  
  
"You moron!" she screamed in his face. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"  
  
"Relax."  
  
"Relax?" she repeated shrilly. "Do you think it's appropriate for you to be saying that after I almost blew your head off?"  
  
"Chloe," Lucas replied calmly, smirking, "you didn't even cock the gun."  
  
She stared at him blankly, uncaring about what his point was. All she knew was that Lucas was inside her house, and she did not even let him in. "This is breaking and entering," she told him, her voice still trembling. Chloe let Lucas guide her to the couch. She accepted the glass of milk that Lucas fetched from the table.  
  
"I have the security code."  
  
Chloe ignored him. She just sat there nursing her glass of milk for a long time. After what seemed like thirty minutes, Chloe finally turned to him and asked, "So what are you doing here?"  
  
"I need to ask you something." Chloe prompted him with her eyes to continue. "Do you really love my brother?" he asked bluntly.  
  
"You almost sacrificed you life for that?" Lucas opened his mouth to reply, but Chloe shushed him. "Cock schmock!" She rolled her eyes and rested her gaze on his, met him stare for stare. Lucas did not seem like he was kidding or anything. "What do you see when I look at him? Do I appear insincere?"  
  
Lucas narrowed his eyes at her, because she was playing now. He was sure she knew what he thought. "You look like every other woman who professed to have feelings for more brother," he said instead, "so forgive me if I have reservations."  
  
"That's where you're wrong, Lucas."  
  
He finally cracked a grin. "I know," he admitted. "The hair threw me off too."  
  
Chloe shook her head, knowing that even if Lucas did not admit to it, she actually won that round. "You did not break into my house to ask me that."  
  
"Lex is out of the country," he told her, as if she did not already know.  
  
"Shouldn't you be sniffing after him like the guard dog that you are?"  
  
"I've been assigned to guard his most precious possession." Chloe grinned. "I know what you're thinking. And no. I did not spend the last two days deliberately disobeying orders. I've been around. I stepped in tonight because I'm tired of sleeping in my car across the street."  
  
"I bet you hate it, don't you? All the things you've been through and now you're relegated to babysitting me."  
  
"I don't necessarily hate it. As long as you don't become that old woman from Guarding Tess. I just can't be comfortable not knowing firsthand how my brother's security is." Lucas saw the way the sparkle in her eye was lost when he mentioned Lex. "But believe me, whoever Lex took with him are the best in their field."  
  
"That doesn't keep me from worrying, Lucas."  
  
He nodded sympathetically, and closed his hand around hers. "Me neither." He shifted in his seat and glanced up to see the small stack of DVDs on the coffee table. "You got popcorn?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Go throw one in the microwave and we'll burn one of these babies tonight."  
  
"Lucas-"  
  
"Go," he commanded. "I don't just guard against attackers. I guard against depression too."  
  
Chloe shrugged and left him. Lucas picked up the movies and sifted through them, then muttered a curse under his breath when he saw the selection. He admired his brother even more for putting up with this trash to watch.  
  
He did not realize how long he spent just staring at the DVDs in disbelief until Chloe's voice broke through his trance. He looked up to see her holding a bowl of buttered popcorn. "I tried to warn you," she said.  
  
"Pretty Woman, Wedding Singer, Notting Hill, American President, Love Story, Love Affair. These are all chick flicks."  
  
"Well as anti-feminist as it is to admit, Lucas, I'm a chick. So if you're as dedicated to your job as you say you are, you're not backing out."  
  
Lucas sighed and reached for the popcorn. "Fine. But we're watching American President. You might get some tips from Annette Bening."  
  
Midway through Michael Douglas' speech about knocking on every door in America to confiscate illegal guns, Lucas noticed that Chloe was getting heavier slumped against him. He looked down at the golden head now sleeping peacefully against his warmth. From this proximity, he could see how softly her lashes curled upwards to frame her eyes. He could appreciate how smooth her cheeks were, and how pick those bare lips were. In a touch of childishness, he blew very subtly on her face.  
  
He grinned when the air made her smile. And then she whispered his brother's name. Lucas turned off the movie. 


	5. Lex

V. Lex  
  
Chloe shivered under her thick jacket. She held the cold metal in stiff hands, carefully turning the cylinder at the end to focus on the blurry spot of light that stood out against the black velvet sky.  
  
"Do you see it?"  
  
"That's a little hard to do considering I have the phone clutched at the crook of my neck and the telescope in my hands. But I'm getting there," she answered. "But I appreciate the thought. It's very 'Somewhere Out There.'"  
  
Lex's voice on the phone was still silky even as he laughed. "I'm looking at the same star right now. I know that deep down, you're a romantic, Sullivan."  
  
"And that's why I said I appreciate your effort, Lex."  
  
"You don't sound like a woman melting under the intense glare of romance," he commented.  
  
"Maybe I will be if I weren't on the rooftop of your building, with a cellphone and a telescope, desperately looking for a star that's supposed to bring me closer to the man I'm in love with, but really won't."  
  
"Maybe," he replied, "it would help if you really saw the star, Chloe."  
  
"Oh really. Well thank you very much, Lex. Unlike you, I didn't not spend most of my childhood looking up at the sky. I'm not used to doing this. I can't just conjure up a star no matter how much a girl inside me wants to experience being foolish and sickeningly sweet with you."  
  
"You were always looking down on the ground, looking for stray meteor rocks."  
  
"Not always," she sighed. "I'm sorry. I just miss you so much. I was so excited at the prospect of acting like an idiot, staring up at the sky and knowing that even as far away as we are, we're connected by that stupid senseless dot. Together."  
  
"You're frustrated."  
  
"And I'm freezing my ass off."  
  
"Maybe I can help you," he offered.  
  
"Oh really," she responded, a bit exasperated by the situation. It was never this hard. She'd been in love before. Despite the eternal insecurity that came with being involved with Clark Kent, she had not experienced the same highs and lows that being with Lex brought her. She had felt as abandoned with Clark longing for Lana as with Lex leaving for work. "How would you do that, Lex? Are you going to call your brother from the ground floor and ask him to set the telescope for me?"  
  
"I'm starting with your ass, Chloe." Her breath caught when she felt warmth around her. Soon, another body was pressed against her, one so familiar that the simple act of his moving against her brought tears to her eyes. Gentle, cool hands removed the phone from her shoulder. His lips teased her ear when he murmured, "I hope I'm warming you."  
  
She sniffled as answer.  
  
Chloe could not move. His hands soon curved around the telescope. With swift, precise movements, Lex manipulated the lens and Chloe was looking at the brilliant star. It would have been clear had moisture not flooded her eyes. She didn't care about the star anymore. She didn't even care that she was on the rooftop of LuthorCorp. Right now, Lex was so close, and they were finally alone together.  
  
She pushed away from the telescope and turned in his arms. His eyes smiled down at her. Chloe bit her lip and grabbed his face with both of her hands, pulling him down to catch his lips in a long and lingering kiss. "I'm never going to allow you to leave me again for such a long time, Lex," she gasped. "I hope you know that."  
  
Lex's lips brushed the edges of her mouth, her cheeks, her eyelids. "I missed you too."  
  
"That's good," she answered.  
  
"I take it Lucas was not an interesting companion."  
  
"Lucas was fine. But he's not you."  
  
Lex wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "I still have to thank him for watching out for you."  
  
They had been apart for so long. Chloe did not have the urge to talk about his brother. "So you're really not leaving again?"  
  
"Not unless you agree to come with me," he promised.  
  
Chloe nodded, satisfied. "Come on. We have to go home. And please send your brother home. I think I can take care of you for the night."  
  
Lex closed his other hand around hers as they headed towards the elevator. 


	6. Lex's Dream

VI. Lex's Dream  
  
Back to the time of the party  
  
His hawk eyes immediately recognized the change. Lucas kept his eyes trained on Chloe as she made her way to the party. Lucas walked slowly. Quick movements told potential enemy that he was losing control. With his eyes, he spoke to the guards posted. Something shattering had happened. Chloe was heading straight towards it.  
  
He followed closely behind her. The moment he saw the party, he knew. People were in groups speaking loudly, speaking fast. Lucas searched the crowd for his brother and saw him in a close meeting with Senator Kelly.  
  
As if he felt her, Lex's eyes rose to the doorway where Chloe stood in front of Lucas. Lucas saw how the lines of his brother's face smoothened at the sight of his fiancé. Lucas understood the effect. Chloe was the most beautiful woman his brother had ever dated. Lex's hand rose to call her attention. Once she saw Lex, Chloe brightened. She made her way down the steps towards Lex.  
  
Lucas saw Lex's attention shift momentarily from Chloe to him. Lex nodded in thanks and Lucas merely grinned. It was not as if Lex thought that Chloe would not listen to him. Lucas would not have stopped until Chloe forgave Lex. It was the part of his job that Lucas would make certain he performed well.  
  
Lex excused himself from the senator and headed towards Chloe. Lucas walked a few feet away.  
  
"Can we talk?" Lex asked Chloe.  
  
Lucas followed as the two of them made their way through the crowd. He stopped outside the French doors that led to the balcony. Often, Lex made it very hard to protect him. He told his men to scan the perimeter because Lex was out in open air, exposed to lurkers outside. Lucas melted into the shadows.  
  
He watched the way Lex wrapped his arms around Chloe, and the way that his brother kissed her ear. The two talked quietly. He saw how Chloe's eyes grew moist at something that Lex said. The breeze carried bits of their conversation to him.  
  
"-a fool to have said-"  
  
"You were."  
  
"-can think of nothing else I would rather be. moment I met you, I knew you would be special. And then when I saw again. the mother of my children-"  
  
"I don't want you to think you're trapped, Lex. But it happened, and I won't pretend that I'm sad about it."  
  
"And I'm not. Thinking about it, about having a baby with you, fills me with an amazing sense of peace. In fact," Lex took a deep breath. "Our party's candidate has pulled out of the race. Senator Kelly was talking to me about running in his place."  
  
"It's your first time running for public office," Chloe said.  
  
"But I apparently have everything they need from a successful candidate-the money, the charisma, the popularity, the leadership experience."  
  
Chloe nodded. Even Lucas, immersed in the dark, agreed. Lex had all of these and more. Thinking of everything in store for his brother in the future, he knew that Lex had the world.  
  
"But I told him that my life will be devoted to my family. And I'm not running for presidency."  
  
"Lex," she gasped. Chloe's hands cupped his face.  
  
The mobile in his pocket rang. Lucas moved away from the balcony.  
  
"It's your dream."  
  
Lex shook his head. "You're my dream. And I'm not giving up what could be a beautiful life with you for a term or two in the White House." He laid his palms on her stomach. "I'd rather be there to watch my baby's first steps. I want to be the first man in the baby's life, not Lucas. My brother's been around you more often than I have the past year. And I hate that. I hate not being with you."  
  
Chloe gave him a tremulous smile. "I don't want to be the reason why you never became what you're meant to be, Lex."  
  
"And what's that?"  
  
"The most powerful man on earth."  
  
"I already am, Chloe. With you, the universe pulses through me." He took her hand and placed it over his chest. "Feel my heart, Chloe?" She nodded. It pounded heavily under her palm. "That's the effect you have on me. I won't ever be as fulfilled in office as I would be with you."  
  
She shook her head. "I won't be selfish, Lex. I won't leave you if you decide to run."  
  
"I would love to be president," he admitted. "As a child I've dreamed of being one. But I've found a better dream. And I don't have enough room for the country because this heart is too full of you."  
  
"I'm depriving close to more than two hundred eighty million people the right to have the best leader they can have," she said softly, smiling. "But I don't feel guilty at all."  
  
Lex grinned and kissed the edge of her lips. "Good. Because you own me, Chloe. When I gave you my heart, I gave you all of me."  
  
"I love you, Lex," she breathed.  
  
Lex gazed at her face illuminated by light. She was lovely, and she glowed either with her pregnancy or with her happiness at his decision. Suddenly, a shadow blocked the light. The two of them looked at the doorway.  
  
A grim Lucas stood there with his mobile phone in hand.  
  
Lex's brows furrowed. "What is it?"  
  
"My security head found one of the windows upstairs broken. I sent two more people for confirmation and they are looking around for the intruder. We need to evacuate you, Lex."  
  
Lex tightened his arm around Chloe. "All right. I want you to take Chloe outside."  
  
"Come with us now, Lex," Chloe said.  
  
"I will. But I'll give Senator Kelly my answer first. I will not have this threat hanging around us." Lex placed a kiss on Chloe's palm and closed her hand around it.  
  
Lucas nodded and took Chloe's hand. "My car, Lex. You are the main target and we don't know what they could have done to yours." Lucas calmly walked Chloe out of the party. Before they passed through the door, Lucas told his men to converge around Lex.  
  
Outside, they headed to the black Honda briskly. Chloe turned around, focusing on the door, waiting for Lex to walk out. "Lucas, make sure the backseat is empty. Remove your jacket and put it in the trunk. Lex and I are staying there."  
  
Lucas quickly opened the door and took his bag and jacket out. He placed both in the trunk and looked at Chloe. She seemed apprehensive. "Do you want me to get him? You'll have to lock yourself in the car."  
  
Chloe nodded and looked at him. "Will you?"  
  
Lucas started back to the house. His instincts glued his feet to the ground. He looked up at the house. One second, he saw Lex, surrounded by the bodyguards, walking out and heading towards them. The next, there was an explosion that came from the house. The force threw them several feet away from the source. Even Lucas found himself facedown on the guard. When he looked at Chloe, he saw her half-sitting on the ground, bleeding from cuts all over her body, staring mutely at the scene in front of her.  
  
He felt himself grow cold all over. Lex's twisted body lay in a bloody heap in the middle of shards of glass and wood. 


	7. Lionel

VII. Lionel  
  
Her tired eyes measured every drop inside the IV bag. The last time she checked, the level of the solution inside was on the twelfth line. She needed to get the nurse soon. The level was on the tenth line and Lex might get worse if nobody replaced it. Chloe felt the quickening of her heart at the thought. She sucked in her breath and stiffened in her seat. She started to reach for the button above Lex's head when a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She glanced back at the man looking down at her.  
  
"Mr Luthor," she rasped. Chloe had not spoken for such a long time that her throat was raw from crying.  
  
"The nurses know when to come back here. There's no sense for you to stress overly."  
  
She nodded and relaxed back on her seat beside Lex's bed. Chloe gripped the hand in hers even more tightly. Lex had not introduced her to Lionel in the year that they were engaged, yet she was much too preoccupied to care about the impression she was leaving on her future father-in-law. Chloe forced her eyes away from the gaze of Lionel Luthor and rested them instead on Lex's face.  
  
A noise from the door and Chloe knew that Lionel had left the room again. He never spend more than five minutes in the room with Lex.  
  
"You said we'd have a happy family, and we would spend our entire lives together." She smiled bitterly and felt a tear roll down her cheek. Chloe reached up to wipe it away. Chloe stood up and looked down at her fiancé. "You're not even a real politician yet, so don't start lying to me now."  
  
Chloe's fingers ran over Lex's face. She smoothed out his forehead. She brushed her fingers over his lashes. Lex always fluttered them when she did that, because his eyes were sensitive and he told her that her action tickled him. She blinked away her tears when he did not so much as stir. Chloe traced his cheeks. When her fingers reached his lips, she shivered. They had never been dry before. Lex's lips dry and slack was a sin.  
  
She laid her lips on them and ran her tongue slowly between them. Chloe continued the kiss for a few more seconds until she finally realized that her life was no longer the fairy tale that it was since Lex fell in love with her. He was not going to respond to her, not going to wake up. The stark hospital room would not evaporate into a meadow just because she wished upon a star.  
  
"God, how could you do this to me?"  
  
She collapsed on her chair again. The hard backing was killing her. "I need you to wake up and tell me how to deal with the possibility of losing you, Lex. If it were left to me, I'd go crazy."  
  
Chloe rested her hand on his chest, just above his heart. "You said your heart belongs to me. You better make sure that it doesn't stop beating," she warned him, her voice taking on a hard edge. "I swear to you, Lex, the moment it does I will have them resuscitate you. And if it stops again, I will have them revive you again. With electric shock, with pumping, with injection. anything. I wouldn't stop, Lex, until you're too tired of being forced alive that you'd open your eyes to tell me yourself."  
  
The look in her eyes as she regarded Lex held challenge. She expected him to laugh at her, or to scowl. She really did. Or maybe she didn't but the insanity was starting.  
  
"Wake up," she commanded quietly. "Do it for us."  
  
Chloe heard the door open again. It was Lucas. She knew it was without even having to look at him. She was too comfortable around Lucas to not feel his presence when he stepped into a room.  
  
"You have to come with me, Chloe. You'll need to get something to eat."  
  
"I don't need to," she reasoned. "You only want me to."  
  
"I'm supposed to protect you," came Lucas' voice again. "How can I do that if you won't cooperate with me?"  
  
"And you're a damn good protector, aren't you?" she said bitterly. Chloe physically felt the way Lucas cringed at her words. She closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry," she whispered.  
  
"Why be? You're right."  
  
"Lucas-"  
  
"Just do this for me."  
  
"Don't make me laugh, Lucas, because I have no capability of doing that."  
  
He pulled up another chair and sat in front of her. Lucas tried to catch her eyes, but her gaze remained fixed on Lex. "Chloe, look at me." He took her cold hand in his and pulled the other one that laid on Lex's chest. He rubbed them between his and kissed both. "You can't stay here forever."  
  
She finally looked at him. "Of course not. I'll be out of here the moment Lex is fine to go home."  
  
Lucas took a deep breath. "You are the most intelligent woman I know." Her gaze left his and settled back on Lex. "And I know. I know, Chloe, that this is part of a process that I would never fully understand. Even so," he tightened his hands on hers, "I want you to accept-"  
  
Lucas looked up when the door opened to admit his father and the doctor. Chloe briefly glanced at the people who arrived and ignored them, returning to what she had been doing before.  
  
"Chloe," she heard Lionel say. She forced herself to regard the older man. "I have something I want to tell you." Chloe waited for him to continue. He asked no question. She did not need to reply. "Chloe, I want you to move on with your life," he said gently. "Do you understand that?"  
  
"I'm not stupid, Lionel," she told him. "I'll move on but you have to make my fiancé wake up."  
  
"I'll do something for you. I know this situation with my son is keeping you from going back to your life."  
  
"He's my life," she said simply.  
  
Lionel shook his head. "That's not healthy, Chloe." She did not respond. "I spoke with Lex's doctors." The man behind Lionel, whom Chloe recognized as Lex's neurosurgeon, nodded as if to say he agreed with whatever Lionel was going to say. "The blow to my son's head caused an irreversible damage to his brain. Lex is not waking up, Chloe."  
  
Lucas' gaze flew to his father's, and he muttered a curse at the delivery of the news. Chloe's nails bit into his palm. Lucas stood to stand behind Chloe. "Father, why don't we talk outside?"  
  
"Don't you think, Lucas, that Chloe should hear this? You told me yourself, the most important person in Lex's life is neither you nor I."  
  
The tears brimmed in her eyes, but she willed them not to drop.  
  
"Chloe, Lex was a brilliant man who was active and alert, who loved life and spend most of his days outside."  
  
"I know who Lex is," she told him. "I know him more than you do."  
  
"Good." Lionel nodded. "Then you know whether or not Lex will want us to keep him alive hooked on machines, a vegetable."  
  
"I don't care. I'll keep him alive."  
  
"You don't care what Lex thinks."  
  
She shook her head. "Lex stays alive."  
  
"I respect that. But I still make the call. And it appears that I care more about Lex than you do, if you can't sacrifice your peace of mind for the peace of his soul."  
  
And then like a torrent of rain, the tears dropped. "You don't understand," she gasped. Lucas grabbed her arms and helped her stand. "Lex wants to live. Why aren't you giving him a chance?"  
  
"Two months, Chloe," Lionel said, his voice calm and full of reason. "Let my son rest."  
  
"Lex has so many plans-"  
  
"Let him rest, Chloe."  
  
We had the right love  
  
At the wrong time  
  
Guess I always knew inside  
  
I wouldn't have you for a long time  
  
Those dreams of yours  
  
Are shining on distant shores  
  
And if they're calling you away  
  
I have no right to make you stay.  
  
"Oh God," she murmured. "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God." The litany went through her lips in a soft breath.  
  
"Chloe, shhh, it's fine," Lucas whispered into her ear. "Come on, Chloe, take a deep breath.  
  
"He can't do this."  
  
"Chloe-"  
  
She pried herself from Lucas' grip and stumbled back to Lex's bedside. "Lex, wake up," she said. Chloe grabbed Lex's arm and started shaking him. "I'm not kidding, Lex. Wake up now."  
  
"Miss Sullivan," the doctor said, "calm down."  
  
"Chloe, just." Lucas glanced at the doctor, and he read in the man's face the truth of what his father related about Lex's condition. "Chloe, you don't want Lex to have a difficult time, do you? Come on. Show him you're strong."  
  
"But I'm not! If he knows I'm not, he'll stay for me."  
  
"Chloe, Lex is gone," he told her.  
  
She bent to kiss Lex's lips. If there were a real power out there watching out for them, then Lex would wake up and they would live happily every after. Or better yet, she would wake up and laugh because this was a nightmare brought about by her popcorn binge when Lex was away on business.  
  
But Lucas reached for her and held her close.  
  
"It would be better if you took her outside, Lucas. She doesn't need to be here for this," she heard Lionel's voice above the thudding in her ears.  
  
"Do you need me with you?"  
  
"No, Lucas. Take Miss Sullivan home. I'll do it."  
  
It was the last thing she heard before the thudding turned into a roar that flooded her eyes with darkness and swallowed her entirely.  
  
~~  
  
Lucas gave her bags to the cab driver. He opened the passenger door and helped her in. "You're sure you don't want me to drive you to the airport?"  
  
Chloe kissed his cheek. "Thank you for everything, Lucas."  
  
"Chloe, stay here. It's not good to be alone in your condition."  
  
"I know that, Lucas. But I can't do anything about it. I am alone."  
  
He shook his head. "You're not alone."  
  
"I am," she said simply. She started to get into the cab.  
  
For Lucas, it was now or never. She was leaving Kansas forever. If she left now, he would never see her again. He had never been able to approach her because she was Lex's. He respected that. Now, though, despite his need to give her space to grieve, he knew he had to act.  
  
"Chloe!"  
  
She turned around and faced him, her hand gripping the end of her necklace. When she saw Lucas staring at her fist, she opened it and gave him a sad smile. On her palm lay the diamond ring that Lex had given her-the same ring Lucas handed to her the night he took her to the party that proved to be the most unforgettable of her life. "Yes?"  
  
And he could not sully whatever love he had for his brother by laying his heart open to his fiancé before Lex was even cold. "Have a safe trip."  
  
But Somewhere down the road  
  
Our roads are gonna cross again  
  
It doesn't really matter when  
  
But somewhere down the road  
  
I know that heart of yours  
  
will come to see  
  
That you belong with me  
  
Chloe settled on the back of the cab and closed her eyes. Metropolis was fading fast as the cab took her closer to the airport. Soon, all this would be a distant memory. On the back of her lids, a picture of Lex was etched, and she treasured the pain that it brought her. As long as there was pain, she was sure that she could still feel.  
  
The white stargazer she had been holding had dropped on top of the coffin. She could not think of any flower more appropriate for an occasion when you buried your love and your dreams.  
  
Lionel had repeatedly asked her to let Lex rest. He asked her for a sacrifice. Chloe found out she was selfish. Now it was too late, so maybe she owed Lex a whisper.  
  
"Rest well, Lex."  
  
~~  
  
Lucas watched the cab carrying the woman of his dreams vanish into the horizon. His destiny meant nothing because he had not been able to fulfill it. To protect his mother, to guard Lex, to make sure Chloe never got hurt.  
  
Someone told him once that if life did not go the way you choose, you pick another path.  
  
Lucas was afraid that a bigger power picked it for him, and he was actually supposed to fulfill his brother's destiny.  
  
It was already half complete, after all. He loved the woman his brother loved. And he let her go.  
  
Sometimes goodbyes are not forever  
  
It doesn't matter if you're gone  
  
I still believe in us together  
  
I understand more than you think I can  
  
You have to go out on your own  
  
So you can find your way back home  
  
"Just a little while, Chloe. And then I'll show you that you weren't buried with my brother."  
  
Letting go is just another way to say  
  
I'll always love you so. 


	8. Your Heart

VIII. Your Heart  
  
The wind was bitter against her cheeks. It always had been up here, on top of the LuthorCorp tower. Then she had a reason to come here. Now, she wondered why a simple call from Lionel Luthor, a man she still loathed beyond comprehension, sent her back here.  
  
When she smiled at the thought, Chloe could almost feel the parched skin of her lips stretching to the point of cracking. She knew why she was here. Lionel made certain in his letter that she would come. How could she not, when the reward he offered for the trip was more than the Luthor billions?  
  
This was her chance for proper closure. The interment, as beautiful and solemn as it was, had been a blur to Chloe. According to Lucas, Lionel had not invited her because he had her best interests at heart. Chloe would be given the chance to move on, spared from seeing her lover buried. Despite the cleverness of the older Luthor, Chloe wondered how Lionel never thought that having been as prominent as Lex had been, she would not find out from the news. Chloe had arrived only in time to toss her final stargazer on the coffin, to hear a thud that would resound in her ears for a lifetime.  
  
Now, three years, four months and eleven days since the day Lionel had thought it fit to exclude her from what would have been the final chapter of Lex's life, she stood at the very same spot where Lex had once wrapped his arms around her and whispered a promise that, "We will explore the whole world." She could see the entire Metropolis from here. He had pointed to the horizon and told her that she would see everything the clouds hid.  
  
The letter was short but more inviting than anything she had read before. Lionel told her she would have the chance to meet the man whom Lex gave hope to. The man was grateful and would like to meet her. She could think of nothing else more important than one more moment to feel close to Lex.  
  
"Do you believe that no matter how far two people are, they will be connected as long as they are looking at the same star?"  
  
And it hurt her that even three years, four months and eleven days from his death, Lex's voice still lingered in their spot, haunting her and taunting her with the knowledge that she would never really hear him say those words again.  
  
Chloe's gaze rose to the stars, and she could see thousands spread across the sky. Her eyes quickly scanned for a special one. And then she gave up. Chloe closed her eyes because even if she picked the most perfect one up there, there was no chance that Lex was looking at the same one.  
  
But the warm breath that grazed her ear was too real. "We should get you inside."  
  
And then she could drown for all the tears that clogged her throat. She slowly turned around, not of her own volition but because of the firm hands on her arms. She opened her eyes and saw a shadowed face silhouetted by the starlight. Her hand rose to cup a cheek that appeared familiar. She felt the roughness of stubble. "Lucas?" she choked out.  
  
"It's been too long, Chloe." He took the hand on his cheek and grazed his lips on her fingers. She shivered at the contact. Lex had always been smooth. Lucas was too different and she did not know whether to be pleased or disappointed. In one hand, she could never pretend he were Lex. On the other, she could never pretend he were Lex.  
  
"Lucas, why are you here?" she whispered, still exposed to the cold wind. "Did you dad ask you to meet the man too?"  
  
Instead of saying yes or no, Lucas' eyes closed. He took a deep breath. When he opened them, they were smokier, wetter, more glazed than they had been before. "Lex died," he started needlessly. "I-I lost you. For the two years before that I knew what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to protect Lex, and then you. Suddenly you were both out of my life and I had no purpose." She tightened her hand around his. "I backpacked to the Andes, to the Amazon, to Tibet, to Malaysia. I was looking for my soul. I was in the tropics when I contracted a viral infection that caused the muscles of my heart to atrophy."  
  
He placed her hand, open palm, to his chest and waited. There was a long moment of silence while the heart in his chest beat steadily against her hand.  
  
And again, as if Lex's presence on that rooftop, built around her, she heard the voice. "When I gave you my heart, I gave you all of me. This heart is yours, Chloe. My heart will always beat for you."  
  
Comprehension dawned and was chased away by betrayal. The man that Lionel promised she would meet. The letter that said that if she wanted to see the man who now had Lex's heart, she should come to the rooftop because he wanted to thank her personally. And now, under his palm, she felt her Lex's heart beating in her friend's chest. Lucas lived and Lex did not.  
  
"No," she said firmly. Chloe ripped her hand away, chilled not by the temperature but by the still throbbing feeling of Lex's heartbeat. She wanted to tear open his chest and take Lex's heart out, because Lex promised her his heart. The Luthors did not have the right to take it as they pleased.  
  
Chloe ran quickly to the door and pulled it open, running down the steps until she breathless and she felt as if her heart would burst out of her body.  
  
We had the right love  
  
At the wrong time  
  
Maybe we've only just begun  
  
Maybe the best is yet to come  
  
Cause somewhere down the road  
  
Our roads are gonna cross again  
  
It doesn't really matter when  
  
But somewhere down the road  
  
I know that heart of yours  
  
will come to see  
  
That you belong with me 


	9. Bright Hair and Blue Eyes

IX. Bright Hair and Blue Eyes  
  
He may have lived as a Luthor for years. Yet Lucas never forgot all the true education that he learned on the streets. He flipped open his brown leather wallet and slipped a metal card out. He strode casually to the door of Chloe's hotel room.  
  
Not even the technology of LuthorCorp's Metropolis hotel could bring him down. Lucas gained satisfaction that in this regard he was still way above his father. Lionel Luthor may control all the assets that Lex left him. Lionel may have taken the choice away from him and given him the one thing he never wanted from his brother. But Lionel would never limit his movement, his access anywhere.  
  
Lucas deftly maneuvered the card into the security lock. The door swung open. He stepped in and closed the door behind him.  
  
The room was small, sparse and pedestrian. Lucas considered the facilities inside and almost shook his head. This was the room of common travelers. In the years he knew Chloe, she had always lived in the best, sat on the plushest, ate the finest. She had the greatest, and this was not it.  
  
Lucas heard the television, and figured that she must have left the television on. He went into the living area and stopped in his tracks.  
  
He had almost forgotten. Lucas swallowed deeply as he regarded the bright haired pig-tailed child that sat on the carpet, intently staring at the animal life show on the tv screen. He looked around and found no trace of Chloe except for her shoes discarded by couch.  
  
He walked closer. The toddler must have heard him, because she turned her head and regarded him quietly. Lucas straightened, as the child looked him up and down. The little girl then broke into a vibrant toothy smile that tugged at his heartstrings. Lex's heart raced in his chest. His brother's daughter with the woman they loved.  
  
"Hi," the girl piped. "I'm hungry."  
  
"Well you probably are," Lucas responded. "I'll get you a bottle."  
  
He turned the counter and searched for everything he would need. When he was a kid, his foster parents told him never to talk to strangers, least of all take food or drink they offered. Things probably changed, or Chloe raised her child in some type of rural farm where her neighbors were normal, genuine people. Lucas didn't discount, of course, the fact that he was actually inside what the girl considered as her house.  
  
"I drink from glass."  
  
Lucas almost jumped when he heard the voice coming from beside him. He looked down and saw the girl standing beside him, close to his thigh. "A glass, huh?" He knelt down to look at the girl closely. Lucas made an interesting discovery. She had Lex's eyes. That was one thing they had in common. "Are you sure? You're a little young for that. How old are you?"  
  
She held up three little fingers. Lucas frowned. Lex had been dead for just over three years. The baby should be closer to two. Or did he have it all wrong?  
  
"Well I'm sorry. You're a young lady. Let me get you your drink."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
He stood and grinned. Who would have thought that the young woman who used to spat at the face of high school authority and made a potential president wear her underwear once to a political dinner would teach her daughter to be so courteous? He spotted no can of powdered milk anywhere, nor white sugar. Lucas went to the refrigerator and saw a couple of containers with milk. He took one and poured the contents in a small casserole to heat.  
  
After a short warming, Lucas poured the milk in a light mug and handed it carefully to the girl. "Where's your mom?"  
  
"In the room."  
  
Lucas walked with the girl back to the living room. He saw her settle on the carpet again and focus on a documentary about robots. Lucas walked over to the bedroom and saw Chloe sleeping on the bed, a wad of tissues clutched in her right hand. He stopped beside her and reached for the hotel blanket and threw it over her.  
  
Chloe moaned in her sleep and smiled.  
  
~~  
  
Lucas undid the top two buttons of his shirt. He sat down on one of the chairs in the dining section, watching the girl flip through the channels before turning the television off.  
  
The girl approached him. Lucas smiled. The blonde child cocked her head to the side as she stared at Lucas. "My mom has a picture of you." She asked somberly, "Are you my dad?"  
  
He picked her up and set her on his knee. Lucas' breath caught in his throat when she touched the ugly scar on his chest. "I wish I were," he answered honestly. "But I'm not. I'm sorry."  
  
"Coz it's okay. Coz you were hurt." She poked a bit at the scar. "I won't be mad."  
  
"Did you know my dad?"  
  
Lucas nodded. "Yes. He loved your mom very much."  
  
"I love my mom!"  
  
"And I love your mom too."  
  
Lucas looked up at the doorway to the bedroom to find Chloe standing there, teary-eyed, red-nosed. "You want to have dinner?" she whispered. "I have some take out we can heat. Alice needs something solid."  
  
He set Alice on her feet and walked over to Chloe, trying to read her expression. Her eyes drifted to the scar that he quickly tried to cover up. She met his gaze.  
  
"Are you angry?"  
  
She tapped his cheek with her cold hand. "You need a shave."  
  
~~  
  
"You still haven't asked the maid to draw the drapes?"  
  
The older man walked into the dark room, feeling his way through the tables, the chairs, the blankets thrown on the floor.  
  
"You know the light hurts my eyes," came the impassive reply from the bed.  
  
"That is ridiculous," Lionel Luthor responded. "You have to get over this, Lex. You were given another chance to live. You have the potential!"  
  
"You should have let go when you found out, dad."  
  
Lionel sat at the end of the bed and patted his son's leg. "She wanted you to fulfill your dreams. Your brother told me so, Lex. Before the explosion, she told him she wanted you to be president. Are you saying you would rather not honor that wish?"  
  
Lex remained quiet. His fingers searched for the button at the headboard of his bed. The room was briefly flooded by the outside light when the door opened. "I would rather that you leave, dad."  
  
"All right, Alexander. If you wish." Lionel pulled himself up. "But remember, your namesake conquered most of the world. You do not let one defeat cripple you. Stand up, Lex. Live your life. For your family," he finished with flair. Lionel shut the door behind him. 


	10. Alice

X. Alice  
  
She was singing Mary Had a Little Lamb for the twelfth time. Lucas looked up at the little girl's reflection on the rearview mirror. Alice's hands waved in front of her, making movements that may be taken as interpretations of the lyrics. He supposed that the girl learned that in pre school. He glanced at Chloe on the passenger seat.  
  
Chloe grinned lopsidedly and shrugged. "You said she'd be quick to pick up."  
  
"And she is," Lucas responded with no small amount of pride. "Alice got that from my side of the family." He knew that he sounded like a father. For the past few months, he noticed that about himself. Chloe did mind though. At least she did not show that she minded his possessiveness of the child.  
  
A few weeks after he managed to include himself again in Chloe's life, the two of them went in search of a school for Alice. Chloe wanted to go back to work. Even if Lionel was still supporting Alice, Chloe never touched the money. Chloe needed a nursery plus day care that would take her child for the whole day. Lucas had gone with her around the city scouting the various child development centers until they settled for the one with a wall painting of Mother Goose.  
  
"You do know that we will never be able to shut her up with all the rhymes she'll learn," she had cautioned.  
  
"She's a kid," Lucas had reasoned. "Kids are much cuter when they can sing."  
  
"Remind me to tell you that when your ears are ringing."  
  
Lucas shook his head at the memory. Despite the constant high pitched singing, he did not get bothered. He spent more than half of his free hours in Chloe's house and all he could think of when Alice sang was that a child's off key singing was music.  
  
"Are you ready, Alice?" His voice flooded the SVU.  
  
The girl in the backseat raised her arms and yelled a "Yes!"  
  
"Can you see the lights?"  
  
"Yes!"  
  
He looked back again at Chloe and he saw that even she was enraptured with the brilliant colors and activity of the carnival. Lex never took Chloe to the carnival. His brother took his fiancé to the most elegant restaurants, the chicest clubs and the most elite parties. That Lex was master of. The only general entertainment Lucas knew of was a mall and a carnival. He took his two best girls to the place where he knew he would have the most fun too.  
  
He found one free spot a few yards away from the entrance. Lucas parked carefully and gave a crisp bill to the boy who doubled as the parking guard. And then he waited for Chloe to get out of her side of the vehicle. He had tried opening the door for her once. She had given him the most scathing glare he had ever experienced in his life.  
  
Instead, Lucas opened the door to the girl who did not complain. Alice smiled at him and extended her arms. He hefted her easily so that she sat on his shoulders. Alice squealed in excitement and pointed towards the bright lights and loud music. Lucas held Alice's hands to his neck and started in that direction.  
  
Halfway there, he stopped and looked back. "Are you going to take forever?" he yelled at Chloe.  
  
In response, Chloe smiled and shook her head. She walked more briskly and slowed a little only when he extended his other hand towards her.  
  
"Well hurry up."  
  
She nodded and jogged over to him. She placed her hand in his. Lucas closed his hand around hers and pulled her along with him.  
  
~~  
  
Chloe gazed up at a sky graced with a thousand pinpricks of light. Once upon a time, she would have cried at the sight of so many happy stars. Now she was all cried out. Her vision of the sky was blocked by a carriage of the Ferris wheel. At the sight, Chloe burst into a big smile and waved.  
  
Alice and Lucas waved down at her.  
  
"Don't look down," she yelled. Lucas pointed to his ear, mouthing that he could not hear. Chloe waved her hands to say never mind, but her daughter thought that her mom was just waving hello and waved hello as well.  
  
With her heart in her throat, Chloe waited until the Ferris wheel finally released her two companions. The three went around the carnival a few more times, darting balloons and winning a mug. They entered a fake firing range because Alice saw a giant teddy bear prize that she wanted.  
  
"Alice, one hundred points?" Chloe said in disappointment. "We can just buy a teddy bear in the mall."  
  
Lucas agreed. But then Alice used a weapon that Chloe knew he could not say no to. Lucas had said before in jest that the flutter of dark eyelashes on a small replica of Chloe's face was his weakness. Lucas sighed and paid the man for several rounds.  
  
In amazement, Chloe watched as Lucas shot duck after plastic duck, pig after plastic pig, and soldier after plastic soldier, dropping targets like flies. Within fifteen minutes, Chloe clutched the giant teddy bear in her arms. Likewise, Lucas carried the unconscious Alice back to the car.  
  
Chloe placed the stuffed animal in the back and climbed into the passenger seat. She took Alice from Lucas. He went around the vehicle and got in the driver's seat. Chloe stifled a giggle when she saw the saliva stain on Lucas' shoulder.  
  
"Awww. We're sorry."  
  
"Are you kidding me?" he replied. "This here is the most expensive eau de toilet in the world! Did I saw eau? I meant eeww."  
  
Chloe chuckled and leaned her head back on the seat.  
  
~~  
  
"Do you want to tell me where my brother is?"  
  
Lex laid the picture frame down. These days, the only faces that he saw were his own, that of Chloe's and of his brother's.  
  
The glass made a soft sound when Lionel Luthor placed it on the desk. He had offered Lex a shot, but again his son had refused. For someone in the depths of personal hell, Lionel had to admire his son for choosing not to take anything to make himself forget.  
  
"I can't do that," Lionel admitted.  
  
Lex's brows furrowed, and he felt his eyes burning. "Don't tell me he was killed too. Why the hell did you keep me alive?"  
  
"Lex, calm down. Lucas is alive and healthier that you are." Lionel sat down on a softly cushioned armchair. "It's just that I know you wouldn't understand."  
  
"Tell me, dad."  
  
"Funny thing." He glanced at his son and saw that Lex did not anticipate anything funny. "After the. incident. Lucas went on a phase. He backpacked to the worst places ever and contracted a disease that weakened his heart. Well. it came to a time when he needed a transplant and I told him he had your heart."  
  
The curse that dropped from Lex's lips was soundless.  
  
Lionel read the question that Lex did not voice. "He was distraught. I saw his potential, Lex, but he always believed you were the one who would make difference. I had to give him something to work for."  
  
"You knew if he thought he had my heart he would have to follow my footsteps."  
  
"He would be forced to. He wouldn't have wasted your heart, Lex."  
  
Lex's eyes narrowed. "You've imprisoned him against his will."  
  
"Well it didn't work," Lionel replied. "I did my best, gave him every opportunity to emulate you. But where is he now? He's ran off somewhere doing everything except be you. Lucas has not done anything worthwhile with his second chance at life. I wonder where I went wrong."  
  
Lex walked out of the room and went inside his bathroom, slamming the door hard behind him. The day he tracks Lucas down, he would set his brother free. 


	11. Alice, Lucas and Chloe

I would like to formally invite you guys to my board where I will be doing most of my updating and posting. It's a freeship board. Please post if you have any stories (  
  
XI. Alice, Lucas and Chloe  
  
The second she heard the news, Chloe dropped the phone and ran out of the publishing company she worked in. Her heart thumped heavily in her chest as she raced to get a cab.  
  
When she arrived at her destination, Chloe stumbled out of the vehicle and rushed to the door, pushing her way to the information desk. The words of the daycare nurse still rang in her ears, about how Alice had fallen off the swing and taken to the hospital.  
  
"Alice," she gasped. "Alice Sullivan."  
  
The nurse typed the name into her computer and looked up at Chloe with a smile. "She's in Room 104 in the meantime, but you can take her home today."  
  
Chloe did not have time to sigh in relief. Her feet took her to the room where her baby was being treated. Only then did the pang of long buried memories assail her. She gripped the doorknob and took a calming breath. The last time she had been in a hospital was murder to everything inside her. She was not going to live if it happened again.  
  
She prepared herself for the steady beeps of machines pumping life into a vegetable. At the back of her mind she scolded herself for being so morbid. Chloe pushed the door open, holding back her tears.  
  
Inside the room, Alice sat on the white bed with Lucas standing in front of her, armed with a marker.  
  
"So then all of the kids in school would be so jealous of your funky cast!" Chloe heard Lucas exclaim animatedly. "Soon, they may even want their moms to get them casts even if they didn't break their arms like you did."  
  
Chloe saw that Alice's nose and eyes were still red and blotchy from crying. Chloe had not been here for the treatment itself. She was thankful that Lucas arrived.  
  
"Thanks," her daughter replied.  
  
"Well you were the smart one. You're the one who wanted to call me. The nurse told me."  
  
Chloe watched as the slightly hurting expression on her daughter's face transformed to a proud grin. She stepped inside and cheerfully said, "Hey, sweetheart! The school called me to say you were hurt. How are you feeling?"  
  
Her daughter turned to her and extended one arm for a half-hug. Chloe reverently kissed the child's head. "Uncle Lucas signed my cast. Will you sign, mommy?"  
  
"Of course I will," was Chloe's immediate reply. "Because a great cast is a cast full of colors and signatures."  
  
Lucas smiled at Chloe in greeting, and noticed how pale she was. When Chloe brushed a lock of hair away from her daughter's eyes, Lucas noticed how much her hand trembled. "Alice, we're going to make a rainbow on your cast. Would you like that?"  
  
Alice nodded eagerly.  
  
"But first, your mom and I will buy some more crayons. Okay?"  
  
Lucas took Chloe by the arm and pulled her out of the room.  
  
"Lucas, are you crazy? I'm not leaving my daughter."  
  
"You need water. And you need to calm down before you scare her. It took a long time to calm her after the accident."  
  
She snatched her arm away. "You don't have to rub it on, Lucas," she gritted out. "I'm fully aware that I wasn't here and you were."  
  
He looked stunned at her speech. "I in no way implied anything like that, Chloe. Don't put your words into my mouth. That's not fair." Lucas shook his head. "I happened to be closer, and I have a car. It doesn't matter who made it here first. What matters now is that we're both here, and she has two people to turn to. Just like any normal kid."  
  
She wanted to saw that Alice was not a normal kid. She wanted to slap him from just so easily saying that as if he were Alice's father and that they were a happy family. Chloe wanted to hit him for arriving earlier than she did. At the same time as all of these, Chloe wanted to kiss him until he collapsed from asphyxia for the exact same reason.  
  
She covered her face with her trembling hands. Somehow, after she had seen her baby girl and made sure she was all right, Chloe wanted to cry. So she did. It was only Lucas in front of her, and he had seen her cry too many times for Chloe to hide.  
  
Lucas' hands closed around her wrists and he pulled her hands away from her face.  
  
"I won't-won't stop-crying just because-because you want me to."  
  
"Who said anything about stopping?" he asked huskily. "I just want you to remember I have several meters of absorbent cloth making up my shirt. That's an awful lot of tears I can soak up." Lucas pulled her to him and held her very close.  
  
"It's just," she managed, "that she's the only one I have left of-of-of Lex. When I heard-I-I can't lose her, Lucas!" Chloe sniffled and rubbed her face into Lucas' shirt. "And you think it's stupid because I know it was just a fracture. But-"  
  
"You're putting words into my mouth again. One day, I'm going to record our conversations so I can play it back for you," Lucas replied. His voice dropped. "Alice is not the only thing you have left of my brother, Chloe. You have me. You'll always have me."  
  
Chloe pulled slowly away so she could look into Lucas' eyes. "But she's the only one that's mine," she told him, regarding him steadily.  
  
Lucas met her stare with his own unwavering one. "So am I."  
  
"Lucas-"  
  
"I've been yours for a long time, Chloe. Even when Lex was alive."  
  
"Don't."  
  
He shook his head. "I've been quiet for a long time. I didn't want you confusing me with Lex. But what I feel is real. I'm in love with you. With both you and Alice."  
  
"You love us because you feel it's your duty to take care of us. Lex told you to."  
  
Lucas grabbed Chloe's hand and pressed it to his chest again, the same way that he did when he went to her on that rooftop lifetimes ago. "How do you explain this?"  
  
She felt the racing beat. Her eyes were sad. "Lex's heart. Lex's love."  
  
"Chloe, even if they didn't replace my heart, I would love you and Alice more than I love myself."  
  
"How do I know that? Lucas, you have Lex inside you. I would always wonder." She pulled her hand away, even if she wanted to lay her head on his chest for the rest of her life, to hear that heart that was both Lex's and Lucas' beat for her.  
  
Lucas swallowed the bile that rose in his throat as he regarded Chloe's expression. A thousand heartbeats, he stared at her, waiting for her to change her mind. Finally, he stepped back. "Then fuck this heart!" he spat out. Lucas turned around and stalked away. 


	12. Destiny

XII. Destiny  
  
It almost seemed like destiny.  
  
Chloe tucked her daughter into bed and pressed a soft kiss on Alice's forehead. She pushed the hair away from the little girl's face. "Sweet dreams," she whispered. Chloe hoped that Alice would have all the beautiful sleeps in the world while she's young, because once you prove to the world that you have grown, nothing would be as innocent and wonderful as childhood dreams.  
  
It seemed like destiny.  
  
Chloe stood and walked towards the doors leading to the balcony. She did not want Alice to have a balcony so young. There was always the danger of falling. Accidents were just that. You never know when they will happen. Still, she adored standing out here at night. She and Lex had talked about a house like this. Chloe never doubted that she would have it. Of course, in all of her plans, she did not stand alone like this. Lex was always there, a looming figure, an indelible stamp. Yet here she was, with a rapidly growing daughter, standing alone.  
  
Maybe it was destiny. But she didn't want to believe it. Destiny was grand and beautiful and made of raindrops and roses and whiskers of kittens. It was sugar and spice and everything nice. If this was destiny, then it was bull. She felt cold. She was lonely. It was so dark. And she had no doubt that he was feeling the same way.  
  
Chloe held on to the railing and gazed up at the sky. Once, she heard that you could see signs in the sky. They would tell you everything you need to know of your past, your present, even your future. She looked up and all she could see were stars. There were bright ones and there were dim ones. There were no signs there. Only memories of Lex who was not looking at the stars somewhere out there. Stupid promises and idealistic notions. Despite his insistence that distance did not matter as long as two people looked at the same star, she doubted he could see the sky where they buried him.  
  
Chloe did not believe in destiny. She swore she did not. Especially because she had felt it pulling her where she did not want to go. Her philosophy was simple. Her philosophy had been real and proven. She had worked on it through her failed almost relationships and fulfilled it the moment Lex Luthor stepped into a small café one rainy night, just after the fight that she had thought would end their blossoming romance, and closed his hand around hers. No apologies, no smiles, nothing. It had been the single most romantic moment of her life, because Lex had been Lex. There had been a long moment of silence before he took his pristine handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the tears and rain from her face. He did not profess his love nor propose marriage. He dried her face and that was that. It was her definition of destiny.  
  
Out of time and space, in the vastness of the universe, she had always believed that only one soul can touch her own, only one other spirit can comfort one person. When she had lost that person, she was desperate and lonely, but she knew.  
  
It was more that she could say for herself now.  
  
She blamed Lucas for all of this. She couldn't even name one moment when her heart changed for him. There was no one second of discovery, the way it should be. Sometimes she wondered if it was that night she woke up and saw him picking up Alice's crayons, or the afternoon he came to Alice's field trip with a bag of fruits just because she packed junk food and forgot it was not allowed by the pre school, or maybe that morning when she got called to the office for an emergency rewrite and could not find a sitter, to find him sitting on the steps with a doll the same size as her daughter.  
  
She treated him like dirt because he was at fault. He made her feel this way. He stabbed his dead brother in the back by doing this to her. She hated Lucas for making her love him.  
  
~~  
  
Sweat poured from every pore in his body. Lucas' chest rose and fall at the exertion. Coldly, he pushed the button on his treadmill. He was going beyond his limits but he did not care. There was no way to better lose oneself than to run and run and know that no matter how fast or how long, you will never move forward and reach your goal. He discovered this a week ago. A week ago, he started running.  
  
He wanted to run until his breath caught and he choked on the huge gulps of air that he took.  
  
It took a while until his body forced him to grip the handles and stumble off the machine. Instead of sitting still or flexing the soreness out of his legs, Lucas pulled himself towards his stationary bike. He pumped his feet until his muscles screamed and still he did not stop. Too much to forget. Maybe, just maybe, if Lex's heart should burst, they would replace it with someone else. Maybe then she would believe him. Thirty minutes later, Lucas' rapid feet slowed on the pedals. His blood rushed up and he stilled. Five heavy pumps in a chest still held together by freshly healed flesh, and then it stopped.  
  
Lucas toppled off the bike and hard on the floor.  
  
He did not know how long it was that he kept his eyes open. His only view was of the white ceiling before gray death swept it away. And then he saw visions of Chloe, his brother, the little girl he saw as his daughter, and of every important person in his life. If death was like this, it was confusing. No wonder there were so many lost souls. Lucas waited for the dark tunnel with the light at the end.  
  
Lex once mentioned something about how his new girl Chloe was going to be the death of him. Had his lips not been so stiff and cold, Lucas would have grinned then, because when he finally caught a glimpse of that light, Chloe's face blocked it, and he couldn't follow any longer. He heard frantic whispers that he could hardly understand. From what he gleaned though, Lucas knew that death was a blessing.  
  
~~  
  
Chloe flew up the flight of stairs. It was unusual for Lucas to ignore the doorbell. Chloe pushed open the doors of his apartment until she came upon a locked one. Frantically, she fished the key out of her pocket and opened the door.  
  
When she saw him sprawled on the floor, dripping in sweat, Chloe rushed over to him. Her vision was blurred by the tears that flooded her eyes, but not one of those tears fell. "Are you crazy?" she demanded. "You are!"  
  
She pulled on his shoulders and settled him on the floor flat on his back. "How can you do this?"  
  
He was staring straight past her, and Chloe's own heart shattered. "You're not going to do this to us, Lucas," she whispered. "Not you too." She understood the thin line between rational thought and dementia at that moment. Had it not been for Alice, she would not have survived Lex's loss. She could not bear to have this happen again.  
  
It was the bravest thing she had done after raising Alice alone. Chloe laid her hand on Lucas' scar and felt the hard sluggish pumping of Lex's heart. She whipped her phone out of her purse and called for help. And then she kneeled beside him and kept her palm on Lucas' chest. Making sure her voice was firm, she told him, "You are not leaving me, Lucas. You don't have the right to make me fall in love with you then leave me."  
  
His blank gaze unsettled her, because she had heard of that same vacant stare. Chloe bent lower, so that the only thing he would be able to see if he could recognize anything was her face. "It's not a question of whether you can or cannot, Lucas. You're going to live for us." 


	13. Stranger

XIII. Stranger  
  
His father would never control his brother the way he controlled Lex. That was the promise that Lex made to himself. He owed Lucas more than his life. Lucas had taken care of the most important person in the world to him. He knew that even with Chloe dead, Lucas had done everything in his power to fulfill his duty to Lex.  
  
He would find her and tell her what Lionel did. He would set Lucas free from the restrictions of living knowing that you were doing so at the expense of your brother.  
  
Lex pulled up the resources on his computer and searched for Lucas. It had been easy to figure out that he was outside Kansas. Lex would have left too had he been in Lucas' shoes. The less reminders of the greatest failure of his life, the better he would have functioned. Finally, after a few minutes of searching, he found a link to a newspaper article on his brother. Eagerly, Lex drank the news of Lucas' recovery from a local Portland newspaper.  
  
Lex felt the unexplainable joy of knowing that his brother had settled in a wonderful family place. Perhaps Lucas can find happiness there away from his past. He was clearly well-loved in the city, as evidenced by the wording of the article.  
  
Lex clicked on the image banner of the online newspaper. The story was old, and he was desperate for more. It was a long-shot, given that Lucas had never been as conspicuous as Lex had been. It was Lionel's greatest frustration, and their father did everything in his father to mold Lucas into Lex's image. He wanted two sons who had chances for the highest positions in the land. His frustration must not have had bounds when Lex fell into a coma and he was left with the son he was dissatisfied with.  
  
The heading was simple. "An Interview with a Blessed Man. Lucas Luthor Finds Happiness." Lex felt a huge thorn removed from his chest. Lex had wondered if Lucas would ever recover from the tragedies he thought happened. And here he was, about to be married, perhaps the most fulfilled Luthor in the family's long history.  
  
Lex would not let Lucas start a brand new chapter of his life believing lies. He stepped out of his room for the first time in years and demanded to see his father.  
  
"Master Lex," the maid sputtered, as if she had seen an apparition. "Your father is in Oregon on business."  
  
"Oh no, you don't," Lex muttered. He turned to the maid and said, "Tell the butler to get me a helicopter right now."  
  
~~  
  
Having not used his muscles for so long, Lex was panting by the time he arrived at the beautiful beach setting of his brother's wedding. He had been focused on the task from the moment he left the house. The mission set in his mind had before then blocked out any coherent thought about what he should expect. When Lex saw the venue itself, he stopped and took everything in.  
  
It was the very same wedding that Chloe had wanted long ago. It was the wedding she fought for when every other person in their lives planned for the biggest and most elegant one, in the tallest cathedral with no less than a thousand witnesses. It was the wedding he apologized to Chloe because he knew that at his stature he would not be able to give her.  
  
He had never voiced it out to his brother before, but at the time when the two Luthors were spending every day together, Lex had been unspeakably jealous of Lucas. Lucas grew up without money and privilege, but at the same time Lucas also grew up without the proverbial eye of Lionel Luthor. Lucas had been able to move about as he wanted, and not have to continuously watch his back for any attacks. Lucas was able to live the kind of life that Lex often wanted, just for the fact that there were days when Lex knew Chloe deserved the break. For all of those things, Lex was jealous of his brother. Yet overwhelming all these small things was his fulfillment to be with Chloe.  
  
Now she was gone and Lucas had everything. Lex took in the sight of the couple in front. The ceremony was over and the minister had given them the permission to kiss in celebration. The small audience burst into a round of applause. The groom playfully bent the bride in a captivating kiss.  
  
And then the couple faced the crowd. Lucas had his arms wrapped around his bride. Holding hands, they ran down the red carpet on the sand, almost tripping. Lex watched dispassionately, frozen in place, as Lucas laughingly ran with everything Lex knew was supposed to be his.  
  
The couple did not have to run long since the dinner setting was just a few yards away. Lex took a deep breath. Just as he had expected the moment he saw her face, Lucas' wedding would have a sunset reception. He allowed the people to move around him as they left their chairs to get some food.  
  
The entire affair was sluggish in his brain. People whom he did not know clinked their glasses to speak. Finally, a familiar voice was heard. His father took the microphone and stood at the center, toasting to Lucas and Chloe.  
  
"Well, isn't this nice? My son finally marries the woman of his dreams. And I have sand inside my pants to testify to that." His father. Ever the jokester. "I always wondered why two young men who had mostly the same blood can be so different," he continued. "I racked my brains to make Lucas more like his brother. The world proved that patience would pay off. Lucas has finally lived up to his potential. Congratulations."  
  
Lionel nodded to the resounding appreciation that he received. Lex's skin crawled when Lionel approached the bride and pressed a kiss on her cheek. Lex stepped forward to take Lionel's hands off her. Instead he found himself awed when Lionel gave Chloe the microphone and she took it to speak.  
  
Chloe pulled at Lucas' hand so that the two of them stood out. "Who you are now is the complete amalgamation of everything I need, Lucas," she said sincerely, looking into her husband's eyes. "And you know how I feel about you. I suppose in some respect I have to thank your father for that." Chloe glanced briefly at Lionel, then looked back at Lucas. "You brought back the dream that I thought died with your brother. I've been dead so long, Lucas. And even though I know you're completely willing to take me on like that, I love you too much to do that." Lex's bile rose in his throat as he watched her bring his brother's hand to her lips. "From this day on I'm completely yours, without reservations, without ghosts."  
  
Lex wanted to crawl back to his dark bedroom in Smallville and hide from the living world.  
  
And then it was his brother's turn to kill him. "We've been skirting around one name and I'm no longer afraid to say it," he began. "A few years ago, Lex asked me to stay with Chloe, to protect her the way he would because he needed to leave the country. That was the first night Chloe and I stayed under the same roof together for more than six hours. And she slept for more than half of it." A soft laughter that Lex did not join in. "I would like to think that Lex is here today, and that now he's just extending his request. Either way, Lex, thank you for lending her to me. And thank you, Chloe, for giving me our daughter Alice."  
  
Chloe pulled him down for another kiss. Lionel stood and spoke to the crowd, "Soon hopefully I'll get a grandson from these two." Lucas laid his forehead on Chloe's.  
  
Lex staggered backwards into the shadowed area where the wedding ceremony had been held. He sat down heavily on one of the beach chairs. He covered his face with his hands.  
  
"I've got a new daddy. Are you jealous?"  
  
Lex looked up and saw the blonde girl standing in front her, wearing a pale yellow dress and flowers in her hair. He was stunned by the blue of her eyes. At that precise moment he recognized her. He wanted to reach for her and cradle her close. He knew that was no longer possible. "I'm very jealous," he admitted. "But I'm happy for you. Are you very very very very happy, Alice?" The girl nodded. "Okay. That's good. If one very is taken away, I can find away to give it back to you."  
  
Alice frowned. "Mommy said you gotta be sad sometimes so you can be happy. Mommy had to be sad so she can be happy now."  
  
"I love you, Alice."  
  
The girl smiled. "I love you too."  
  
"Go back your parents, Alice. They'll worry about you."  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"I'm going home. I'm not from around here," he told her.  
  
Lex watched as the girl ran back to the party.  
  
Letting go is just another way to say  
  
I'll always love you so. 


End file.
